“And we mean to treat you all,”added Lydia,“but you must lend us the money,for we have just spent ours at the shop out there.”Then, showing her purchases―“Look here, I have bought this bonnet.I do not think it is very pretty;but I thought I might as well buy it as not.I shall pull it to pieces as soon as I get home, and see if I can make it up any better.”
“Now I have got some news for you,”said Lydia, as they sat down at table.“What do you think?It is excellent news―capital news―and about a certain person we all like!”
After welcoming their sisters, they triumphantly displayed a table set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually affords, exclaiming,“Is not this nice?Is not this an agreeable surprise?”
Elizabeth was shocked to think that,however incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her own breast had harboured and fancied liberal!
As soon as all had ate,and the elder ones paid,the carriage was ordered; and after some contrivance, the whole party, with all their boxes,work-bags,and parcels,and the unwelcome addition of Kitty's and Lydia's purchases,we